JAANE BMI DO...

h is aimless ramble.

STARRING: Pulkit Samrat, Bilal Amrohi, Anupam Kher and Sara Jane Dias

DIRECTOR: Umesh Bist ~ 'r-,,_'r):f ucki ly, this is not an official remake of Kundan Shah's classicJaane Bhi Do Yaaron. If it was, the makers of the original could have sued for defamation.

0 Teri borrows the concept of two bumbling, very unprofessional professionals who chance upon a scam from Kundan Shah's film and turn it into an extended Santa-Banta joke It was Naseeruddin Shah and Ravi Baswani i n the original. It is Pulkit Samrat and Bilal Amrohi in this remake, designed to give ulcers to a civilisation doped on the hope that cinema can shake the corrupt through satire

0 Teri is like a stretched-out political joke where the raconteur forgot the punchline and is hoping he would rediscover it in the process ofundertaking is runn ing for cover, Nandan takes the effort to save a turtle. He befriends a human skull and calls it'Mr. lnam is backed by wonderful performances by an almost unfami l iar cast. From Sugandha to Karan to Saritha, Sivan has extracted raw performances from everybody. And the reas on the actors are believabl e in their respective roles is because they are unfamiliar.

Samrat and Amrohi are given lines that sound like bulk SMS messages. They try to enjoy the banter. But, poor freshers, they can't really savour the unpalatable. If television anchoring was meant to be as brainless as shown in this film, then our tainted politicians would safely find alternative employment.

And really, Sarah Jane Dias doing a Bhakti Bharve from Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron? That is funnier than anything this film has to offer.

Anupam Kher doing Pankaj Kapoor's role from Kundan Shah's original, is cast as a Suresh Kal madi kind of brazenly corrupt politician who cannot be amusing unless given some kind of a humour platform beyond the ordinary rites of laughter.

Tragically, the intended satire is so frumpy and baggy that it collapses under its own weight.

Frien d ; builds a strange relationship with it and even saves Rajni from her molester towards the end of the film.

The rea l star ofthe film undoubtedly is Karan, who entertains at regular intervals with his innocent mischief He carries the film on his shoulders and you root for him more than you root for others.

Sivan's striking cinematography makes even remorse moments in the middle of a war-zone, a visual splendour to gaze at. One particular shot that stands out in the entire film is when we see a group of foreigners leaving Sri Lanka in a hurry with a polythene bag full of fish with a dead one floating inside.

You understand this particular shot little later when in another scene, people pass through hundreds of unattended bodies in search of cover during the war because nobody has the time to even bury these bodies.

Vishal Chandrasekhar's music helps you connect with the film on an emotional level. Even though there are three songs included merely to give the fi l m a commercial touch, it's h is background score that draws your attention lnam, coming straight from the heart of Santosh Sivan, deserves to be accepted, embraced and celebrated.

HARICHARAN PUDIPEDDI

Debutant director Umesh Bist would have done wel l to study Kundan Shah's cult classic for its contoured, sly comicality. Bist attacks the material with wolfish relish, making a hash of the politica l satire, much in the way that the Kai ma dis of politics are doing of our nation.

Save yourself the agony of watching this masala-mix version of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. Just watch the ori ginal again.

SUBHASH KJHA